The source said the American is a Pentagon employee

Russian police officers (archive)

ST. PETERSBURG, May 27 /TASS/. A court in St. Petersburg has detained a US national for violation of rules of sojourn in Russia, a branch of the Russian Federal Migration Service for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, told TASS on Wednesday. The source said the American is a Pentagon employee.

"He faces administrative penalties for failure to register with Russian migration bodies in the course of 7 days. His case is in court now," the source explained.

A law enforcement source in St. Petersburg told TASS earlier on Wednesday that a US Department of Defense employee had been taken to a St. Petersburg court for violation of Russian visa regulations.

"He is a civil employee of the US Defense Department," the source said clarifying that the foreigner had arrived in Russia to visit his relatives and had stayed at their place without migration registration.